Ultima The Ultima Series Discussion Thread

[Neanderthal]

I thought exploration was far more fun without a mini map telling you where to go an highlighting everything, I looked at the map and wondered what was out there, and sometimes I did run across interesting stuff. Exploring Deep Forest is still an adventure, even after all these playthroughs, I get lost, I find shit and get torn a new one. Personally I love that style, an in game map that you actually consult, feels far more real for wont of a better word.

 

[Malignant Manor]

Infinitron you should know that Nuvie can extend the view area in Ultima 6. Exult allows you to have a larger viewing area in Ultima 7 but it cannot load saved game from the original engine. (Nuvie can load original U6 saved games, but Nuvie saves can't be used in the original engine.)

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Been playing Ultima VII: The Black Gate recently.

...

but now feel like stopping. I have a lot of respect for this game for what it accomplished back in 1992, which is just mindblowing. Full day-night cycles, complex NPC behavior, highly interactive world, well written dialogue, very pretty graphics, I can fully understand how people who played it back then hold it in high regard, and it definitely belongs on any historically important list.

But with that said, it just doesn't grab me at all these days. The combat is shit obviously, but while dialogues are well written, the mundane nature of them and of the story in general just fails to attract interest in the same way that an older game like Betrayal at Krondor might. The obsolete interface and the small screen without a map also make exploration less fun than it might be otherwise. So, a great game in its time, but in my opinion, just doesn't hold up as well these days. Very few games before 1997 or so do.

Or maybe you're just too fucking stupid to realize a good thing when its staring you in the face.

In all the years since Ultima 7 was first released, I've only seen ONE game even come close to it in terms of content, mechanics and overall feel. That was Skyrim in 2011. ONE game to come close, in 23+ years. NO game to actually surpass it.

U7 didn't just push the boundaries of what was possible for a game world to achieve, it set (de facto) standards. Of which far too many have yet to be met by modern comtemporaries.

You haven't even gotten started on the good parts of the game! You're like that reviewer from way back then who gave U7 a "4/10" rating because IT WAS TOO BIG.

I have a suggestion for you: Play Ultima 7 Part 2. Nevermind the spoilers, just try to look at it as a game. It uses the same engine but still approaches things differentely.

Go on. It won't bite.

 

[octavius]

So, a great game in its time, but in my opinion, just doesn't hold up as well these days. Very few games before 1997 or so do.

I disagree with that last sentence. I've played most of CRPGs from before 1997 the past few years, and most of them hold up well. But it's ironic that some of those that were cutting edge, like U6 and U7, are among the few I was unable to play (due to the UI).

 

[RK47]

Been playing Ultima VII: The Black Gate recently.

...

but now feel like stopping. I have a lot of respect for this game for what it accomplished back in 1992, which is just mindblowing. Full day-night cycles, complex NPC behavior, highly interactive world, well written dialogue, very pretty graphics, I can fully understand how people who played it back then hold it in high regard, and it definitely belongs on any historically important list.

But with that said, it just doesn't grab me at all these days. The combat is shit obviously, but while dialogues are well written, the mundane nature of them and of the story in general just fails to attract interest in the same way that an older game like Betrayal at Krondor might. The obsolete interface and the small screen without a map also make exploration less fun than it might be otherwise. So, a great game in its time, but in my opinion, just doesn't hold up as well these days. Very few games before 1997 or so do.

Or maybe you're just too fucking stupid to realize a good thing when its staring you in the face.

In all the years since Ultima 7 was first released, I've only seen ONE game even come close to it in terms of content, mechanics and overall feel. That was Skyrim in 2011. ONE game to come close, in 23+ years. NO game to actually surpass it.

U7 didn't just push the boundaries of what was possible for a game world to achieve, it set (de facto) standards. Of which far too many have yet to be met by modern comtemporaries.

You haven't even gotten started on the good parts of the game! You're like that reviewer from way back then who gave U7 a "4/10" rating because IT WAS TOO BIG.

I have a suggestion for you: Play Ultima 7 Part 2. Nevermind the spoilers, just try to look at it as a game. It uses the same engine but still approaches things differentely.

Go on. It won't bite.

I think he wants Oblivion gates to open all over Brittania. I suggest he skips to Ultima 9.

 

[Kersey]

But with that said, it just doesn't grab me at all these days. The combat is shit obviously, but while dialogues are well written, the mundane nature of them and of the story in general just fails to attract interest in the same way that an older game like Betrayal at Krondor might.

Just felt like pointing out that Betrayal at Krondor was released way after Ultima VII.

 

[Mortmal]

So do people despise Ultima 9 more than Ultima 8?

I despise it a lot more than 8, 8 was super mario ultima , but 9 was too moronic to cope with.A huge huge disapointement for everyone back then and will neve be forgiven.

 

[makiavelli747]

Just felt like pointing out that Betrayal at Krondor was released way after Ultima VII.

Betrayal at Krondor 1993
Ultima VII 1992/1993

 

[Kersey]

Just felt like pointing out that Betrayal at Krondor was released way after Ultima VII.

Betrayal at Krondor 1993
Ultima VII 1992/1993

Looks so close when you put it like that, doesn't it? Nevertheless, there was more than a year between the two. Though I think I misunderstood the point the post I quoted was trying to make anyway ("an older game like this other old game" instead of "a game older than this game I'm talking about"), so my point was pretty worthless anyway.

 

[Agesilaus]

Anyone criticising U7's UI or game engine needs to have their head examined. Literally one of the best, most open, and free experiences imaginable. It still ranks right up at the top when it comes to real time rpgs.

 

[RK47]

Trying to find this motherfucker

in Yew Forest is a fucking nightmare.
I nearly quit a few times cause I can't find the right asshole to talk to.
Fuck you

Fuck you. Fucker.
Once I got what I needed I slaughtered all of them.

 

[Excidium II]

Trying to find this motherfucker

in Yew Forest is a fucking nightmare.
I nearly quit a few times cause I can't find the right asshole to talk to.
Fuck you

Fuck you. Fucker.
Once I got what I needed I slaughtered all of them.

Spoiler

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I used powder kegs on them. Actually I used powder kegs almost everywhere I could drag them.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I used powder kegs on them. Actually I used powder kegs almost everywhere I could drag them.

I lugged a cannon around for those pesky doors that wouldn't yield to my lockpicking skills. Works really well to get the Hoe of Destruction.

I can also understand the Emp thing. Finding them in the forest is not that hard, finding which one of those hyperactive little monkeys you're supposed to click on was a challenge in and of itself.

 

[Malignant Manor]

I think he has a low npc number if you want to find him with the show npc number cheat. I guess there is always the teleport to npc cheat too. Marzo talked about maybe modding them out. The first post in the thread talks about his dislike of imps.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I just saw the following comment in a local Facebook discussion (translated it for you):

Ultima VIII was the first Ultima game I played. I later tried to play the older games, but I found them to be so different that I could never get into them. I think this game is insanely good. Many novel and original things were introduced with Ultima VIII that no games had done before.

 

[Infinitron]

Ask him where he got it. I have a suspicion that U8 is the first Ultima a lot of people played because EA gave it out as a freebie with gaming magazines. (those were sort of like the Humble Bundles of their time)

 

[Daemongar]

I remember when the big "Birthplace of Moriens" hullaballoo hit. That, I thought, was the beginning of the end. They had to release a patch to put up a sign in game for a non-essential part. It wasn't even a fix (well, I think the same patch fixed jumping.)

Right now, playing U9 with the "Beautiful Britannia" mod. Doesn't look much different, but can't exactly tell. May look better, but the random crashes are not fixed. As much as I don't care for this game, the dialogue, the crashing and the avatars stupid voice and delivery... it still is fun to explore and search around. I'm pretty sure I'll quit when I get to the Gargoyle thing because that was the dullest time I ever remember in a game. Don't think I could do it twice.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

rpg codex > the hipsters of masochism

 

[Alex]

Ask him where he got it. I have a suspicious that U8 is the first Ultima a lot of people played because EA gave it out as a freebie with gaming magazines. (those were sort of like the Humble Bundles of their time)

And it came bundled with Soundblaster 16 as well, don't forget about that.

I actually have a story similar to that person. Ultima 8 was the first Ultima, in fact the first CRPG, I played. A friend of mine, however, had Ultima 7 and I was glad to exchange CDs with him for a week. After I played 7, I actually found I enjoyed it a lot more, which my friend thought weird, as the graphics were all worse (I disagree, but whatever). This was before either of us spoke english, so back then we played only to see how much cool stuff we could amass, what we could steal a,d who we could kill.

 

[Excommunicator]

But with that said, it just doesn't grab me at all these days. The combat is shit obviously, but while dialogues are well written, the mundane nature of them and of the story in general just fails to attract interest in the same way that an older game like Betrayal at Krondor might. The obsolete interface and the small screen without a map also make exploration less fun than it might be otherwise. So, a great game in its time, but in my opinion, just doesn't hold up as well these days. Very few games before 1997 or so do.

You mean the point-and-click, drag and drop interface that is still in use today?

Meanwhile Betrayal at Krondor is more recent and less intuitive, not to mention impossible to navigate with its small screen without a map

The whole world in U7 is mapped out in full detail in your cloth map and with a set perspective you should have no trouble navigating it. Noob

 

[octavius]

[
Meanwhile Betrayal at Krondor is more recent and less intuitive, not to mention impossible to navigate with its small screen without a map

Not sure if ironic, but there is a map in BoK, and personally I found it a joy to play, unlike U6 and U7. All these games I tried the first time in recent years, so no nostalgia involved.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

You've played a lot of old school shit octavius, how is it you missed the Ultimas. Busy with blobbers at the time?

 

[octavius]

You've played a lot of old school shit octavius, how is it you missed the Ultimas. Busy with blobbers at the time?

I had an Amiga. So I played U3 and U4, but missed out on U6 and U7.
And ironically it was Ultima Underworld that made me realize that the Amiga was an evolutionary dead end.

I also had U5 for Amiga, but I thought the whole world was in the same scale as the starting area, and being an anal retentive mapper back then I failed my morale check at the though of mapping the entire game in that scale. It was only when U5 came up on my chronological playlist some years ago that I realized what an idiot I had been, and what a great game U5 was.
Couldn't get into U6 and U7, though,

 

[Excommunicator]

[
Meanwhile Betrayal at Krondor is more recent and less intuitive, not to mention impossible to navigate with its small screen without a map

Not sure if ironic, but there is a map in BoK, and personally I found it a joy to play, unlike U6 and U7. All these games I tried the first time in recent years, so no nostalgia involved.

Yes there's a map, just like there's a map in U7. I'm just pointing out the nonsensical nature of his criticisms

BaK I played in recent years and it was not nearly as easy to navigate.